[Healeys] Rattling noise on hard accelleration

[Patrick Yoas]

Peter,
When you posted your problem and I read it, it was nearly identical to
mine(the noise that is), and that is why I said that it was a good possiblity
and you should consider the joints. Mine first did it on slow acceleration
with two adults and two kids in the car going up a slight incline from a dead
stop. This put a significant stress on the joints! I'll bet that if you had
put four people in your car and duplicated what I did, you would have heard
the noise right next to you.
Patrick
 

It was the universal joints.  When I pulled the drive shaft I found 1/16" of
play in the rear universal.  After spending about three hours trying to get
the old ones out using the hammer method shown in the BMC shop manual I sent
the drive shaft out to have the u-joints replaces and the shaft rebalanced.

Not only has the noise disappeared but so has the vibration I was getting at
60-65 mph.  Add another item to the list of things that can cause "scuttle
shake".

Peter Schauss
1963 BJ7
1980 MGB